Monitoring system

ABSTRACT

The invention concerns a monitoring system for monitoring incoming telephone calls routed through a call transference system, the system comprising an electronic processor and an associated database, the system being adapted to detect the originating number of the caller and the called number to which the incoming call was made before being transferred, to automatically generate a return call to any incoming call the originating and called numbers of which have been identified without answering the incoming call, and to store the time and date of an incoming call the number of which has been identified and data representing the number to which the incoming call was made.

This application is a 371 of PCT/GB01/05314 filed Nov. 30, 2001 which isa con of Ser. No. 09/835,372 Apr. 17, 2001 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,587,551.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention concerns monitoring systems for monitoring whetheror not a person has reached or left one or more selected destinations.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Such systems are already known and are particularly useful in theexpanding field of home caring. In the last few years there has been asubstantial increase in the number of elderly or incapacitated peoplewho live in their own homes and are reliant on regular visits by carers.The carers can be employed by local authorities or independentorganisations. In either case it is necessary for management to be ableto monitor the staff who carry out the actual visits in order to ensurethat the visits are both actually made and also importantly, made at theright time.

Before the arrival of Computer Integrated Telephony (CTI) suchmonitoring would normally be carried out on the basis of time logsfilled in by individual staff. More recently systems have involved acarer calling into a central office and inputting an identifying PINnumber. A similar call on departure will identify the period at whichthe caller was at a particular address as Caller Line Identification(CLI) will supply the time, date and location of the calls.

A disadvantage of such a system is that calls actually have to becompleted by being answered at the central office. This causesadditional expense and also takes time.

A concern of the present invention is to provide a simple yet efficientmonitoring system.

Thus an embodiment of the invention provides a monitoring system inwhich incoming calls remain uncompleted, i.e. no expenses incurred, andin which a call is returned automatically to the original caller.

However there still remains the problem in that many organisationsemploying carers require, for payroll and client billing purposes,confirmation with regard to each visit of the actual identity of thecarer rather than just confirmation that a visit has been made at aparticular client location. With the earlier situation in which theincoming calls are answered and the carer enters an identifying PIN thecarer is identified immediately. In the unanswered system of the firstembodiment of the invention the carer's identity is only confirmed byreferring to a prior schedule which matches the location from which theincoming call was made with the carer who in accordance with theschedule was meant to make the visit. However this means that theschedule has to be updated constantly as errors can arise if theschedule is out of date. This is difficult to achieve. There istherefore the risk of inaccuracies occurring in the electronic timesheets that are produced as a result of the matching process. Suchdiscrepancies could have serious consequences if the system was to beused as a basis for determining staff pay.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is also concerned with providing a solution tothis problem whilst still giving the cost saving advantages of anunanswered calling system. One aspect of the invention comprises amonitoring system for monitoring incoming telephone calls routed througha call system, the system comprising an electronic processor and anassociated database, the system being adapted to detect the originatingnumber of the caller and the called number to which the incoming callwas made, and to store the time and date of an incoming call the numberof which has been identified and data representing the number to whichthe incoming call was made.

The present invention can be implemented by a computer program operatingon a standard desk top computer. An aspect of the present invention thusprovides a storage medium storing processor implementable instructionsfor controlling a processor to carry out the method as hereinabovedescribed. Further aspects of the invention will be apparent from thedescription and the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order that the present invention may be more readily understood, anembodiment thereof will now be described by way of example and withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a general overview of a monitoring system incorporating thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of the basic operation of the monitoring systemof FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the hardware involved in the monitoringsystem of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of the operation of application software forthe hardware of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 shows a general overview of a second embodiment of the monitoringsystem incorporating the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing some of the hardware of FIG. 5 ingreater detail;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of the basic operation of the monitoring systemof FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of the operation of application software forthe hardware of FIG. 4 but modified in accordance with the secondembodiment,

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an additional facility,

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of an auto check-up sequence,

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of an event processing routine forming part ofthe operation of the monitoring system according to the invention,

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of part of the operation of remote use of anevent menu procedure, and

FIG. 13 is a magnetic view of part of a display generated by the systemaccording to the invention.

MORE DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Whilst the following description is given in relation to a home caringsituation it will be appreciated that there are many other situationswhere it is wished to monitor the visits of people to outside locationsother than the home caring situation.

Referring now to FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings the Public ServicesTelephone Network (PSTN) is shown at 1. Two locations 2 and 3 each witha telephone represent sites to be visited by a user of a monitoringsystem. As shown in FIG. 1 the monitoring system comprises aprogrammable electronic processor 4, a database 5, a printer 6 and modem7 whereby data can be sent to clients via the internet. The database forexample can comprise an external hard disc or internal memory space ofthe processor 4.

It will be appreciated that the monitoring system to be described can beused in a number of different ways. Firstly an organisation employingpeople who travel from place to place, such as home carers, can operatethe system themselves. The monitoring system can also be used by oneorganisation to monitor activities on behalf of one or more otherorganisations.

Referring now to the flow diagram of FIG. 2, step S1 represents thepoint at which a visitor such as a carer rings into the monitoringsystem for example from location 2. At step S2 the call is received atthe monitoring system 4. It is assumed that CLI is available on theincoming call. Using CLI the call is time logged and the source numberidentified at step S3. However the call is not answered and the circuitbetween the caller and the monitoring system 4 is not completed. This isachieved by the caller hanging up at step S4 within a short specifiedperiod, for example after two, three or four rings. At step S5 themonitoring system automatically returns the call to the originatingnumber. Once again this call is not answered and the monitoring systemis programmed to hang up at step S6 after a short predetermined period,for example two rings. This sequence is carried out at the start of avisit. When the caller has completed his/her business at location 2, acall is once again made to the monitoring system which follows the sameprocedure. Thus a clear record is made of both the start and end timesof the visit. The caller then proceeds to the next location, location 3,and the procedure repeated.

By way of alternatives to the caller hanging up at step S4, the systemcan respond differently for example in order to give the callerassurance that the correct number has been dialled into the systemwithout requiring a response call as set out at step S5, though ofcourse this may be given also. In one alternative, the system presentsthe caller with a busy tone after a predetermined number of rings suchas two rings.

Referring now to FIG. 3 of the accompanying drawings, this shows inblock form the functional organisation of the monitoring system of FIG.1.

In the present embodiment the main hardware is a personal computergenerally indicated at 10 which can be an IBM (RTM) or IBM compatiblecomputer operating in a Microsoft Windows (RTM) environment though ofcourse both the type of computer is not essential and the operatingsystem need not necessarily be Windows based. Alternative systemsinclude DOS and UNIX.

The computer 10 is provided with a plug-in card 11 enabling the computerto receive calls from the PSTN. A typical card is a Dialogic pro-card,part number D/21H-UK manufactured by the Dialogic Corporation of theUSA. This plug-in card 11 interacts via Microsoft Windows (indicated at12) with another software suite 13 such as the Parity Callsuitemanufactured by the Parity Software Corporation of the USA. The ParityCallsuite provides a comprehensive set of VBX and OCX controls and canalso be used in a number of different operating environments such asVisual Basic, Visual C++, Delphi and Visual Fox Pro.

The software suite 13 in turn interacts with application software 14 inaccordance with the flow diagram shown in FIG. 4 of the accompanyingdrawings. Thus the application software 14 receives notification of anincoming call from the suite 13 at step S10. At step S11 the applicationsoftware checks if CLI is available. If not, the flow ends at step S12in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 though more sophisticated callhandling is described later with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8 for example.If the answer is YES the flow proceeds to step S13 where the applicationsoftware looks for the clients' details in the database 5. Optionallyhowever, if CLI is available at step S11 then at S11 a the systemdetermines whether the call is from a carer number. If the call is froma known carer number, such as the carer's home phone number or mobilephone number for example, then the system recognises that the carerrequires to enter details of a visit from a remote location to a clientand accordingly, the remote menu options can be provided as described inrelation to step S130 onwards in relation to FIG. 12. If the call is notfrom a carer then the flow proceeds from step S11 a to S13. At step S14a decision is made with regard to the existence of the clients' details.Even if the incoming number is not matched with a client number thedetails of the incoming call are stored at step S15 in the database 5 asthere is a possibility that the monitoring system will not have beeninformed of a new client number.

If the number of the incoming call is matched in step S13 with a clientthen in step S16 an attempt is made to match the time of the call with aschedule of times stored in database 5 and once again details of thecall are stored in step S15 in the database.

At step S17 the application software 14 takes the phone off-hook and atstep S18 dials the stored telephone number, waits a predetermined numberof seconds while the dialled number rings and at step S19 hangs upwithout a call having ever been completed.

In many cases the monitoring system will be acting for a plurality ofclients each of whom will have a number of people making regular visitsand who will require to have regular reports on the dates, times andextent of the visits.

Thus at step S20 the application software separates matched andunmatched incoming numbers, collates the matched number in accordancewith the client to which they belong, generates data at step S21 showingwhether or not a matched call corresponds to a scheduled visit andgenerates one or more reports at step S22. These can be displayed,printed by the printer 6 for onward transmittal or sent to the clientsvia the internet connection 7 or (permanently connected) to a leasedline or dial-up modem.

Whilst the forgoing description has been given with regard to the PSTNit will be appreciated that what has been described is equallyapplicable to a local network, or that the monitoring system is itselflocated in LAN or a WAN connected to the PSTN.

From the foregoing description it will be appreciated that themonitoring system described has a number of advantages over the priorart. All unanswered call systems work on the basic principle that CLIand date/time information is transmitted along phone lines before aconnection is made i.e. without incurring call charges. The presentembodiment differs in that when a user replaces the handset afterallowing the phone to ring a prescribed number of times, instead ofhearing nothing, after a short pause the system automatically dials andreturns a number of rings to the incoming caller, and then hangs up. Thewhole process can take less than 10 seconds. In a modification of theembodiment just described the system can hang up automatically after apredetermined number of rings if the caller continues to ring over thenormal number. This prevents the system from getting clogged.

The main problem with existing CLI only monitoring systems is that theperson making the call has no way of knowing if their call has beenlogged or not. For example, they may have dialled the wrong telephonenumber or they may not have let the phone ring a sufficient number oftimes for the system to pick up the CLI as 1 ring is usually the minimumon an analogue system.

It would be very difficult to prove or disprove whether the caller hasor has not phoned in—or more to the point whether they made the visit ornot—as the caller could argue that the system did not pick up the call.With the system as described, not only will the caller have receivedverification that the call was received and CLI recorded by means of theautomatic ring-back facility, but also the system can tell thecontroller that the caller received confirmation by showing whether thering back was successful or not.

One of the difficulties of conventional CLI only systems is that thereis a small chance that CLI will not be picked up even from a telephonewhich normally sends a CLI signal. The intermittent disruption to theCLI transmission is unpredictable and means that there will always be apercentage of calls which will show as exception errors and can never bematched to a client. This makes such systems inherently fallible ifaccurate time sheet replication is required. The advantage of approachdescribed in the present specification is that if an intermittent CLIproblem occurs and the caller does not hear a ring-back on the firsttime they ring, all they have to do is ring the number once again and itis almost certain that they will get a ring-back on their secondattempt.

The system could potentially be used to notify the caller of whetherthey are making an arrival or departure call by varying the number ofrings that the caller hears on ring-back (e.g. 1 ring for arrival, 2rings for departure). This would work by programming the system torecognise where the caller is calling in for the first time from aparticular number and then recognising where the caller is calling forthe second time from that same number during the same visit. This couldbe done by matching calls to Care Plans or by ensuring that the callermakes all calls exactly in sequence i.e. 1 call in and 1 call out forevery visit. It would assume that the correct number of calls were madefor each visit or use a more sophisticated matching routine as describedlater in relation to FIG. 11 for example.

Referring now to FIG. 5 of the accompanying drawings the Public ServicesTelephone Network (PSTN) is shown at 1 this shows a second embodiment ofthe present invention. Two locations 2 and 3 each with a telephonerepresent client sites scheduled to be visited by a specific user of amonitoring system. Two further locations 2′ and 3′ are scheduled to bevisited by another user of the monitoring system. In a system in whichincoming calls were answered each user would have their own PIN number.As shown in FIG. 5 the monitoring system comprises a programmableelectronic processor 4, a database 5, a printer 6 and modem 7 wherebydata can be sent to customers via the internet or dial-up modemconnection. The database for example can comprise an external hard discor internal memory space of the processor 4. Here, reference is made toa customer meaning the organisation for whom the callers, in theexamples given carers, work. Whilst such an organisation could run thesystem or systems described herein themselves, it is envisaged that thesystem will be run by a service provider on behalf of one or more carerorganisations or agencies.

Accordingly, it will be appreciated that the monitoring system to bedescribed can be used in a number of different ways. Firstly anorganisation employing people, such as home carers, who travel fromplace to place, can operate the system themselves. The monitoring systemcan also be used by one service provider company to monitor activitieson behalf of one or more other organisations. Also shown in FIG. 5 is anode 9 of the PSTN to which the calls from the locations 2, 2′, 3 and 3′are directed before being received at the monitoring system. The overalltelephony system shown in FIG. 5 is an ISDN-system (Integrated ServicesDigital Network) or a comparable system. A feature of ISDN systems isthat a user is able to purchase a number, usually a 0800-number which isfree to the caller. Such numbers will be referred to hereinafter as“free call numbers”. Thus a caller dials the free call number and isthen transferred to the call's final destination which bears the cost ofthe call rather than the caller. In addition ISDN supports what is knownas DNIS (Dialled Number Identification Service). By means of the latterfeature the recipient of an free call can not only, using CLI (CallerLine Identification), identify the telephone and thus the location fromwhich the call was made but also identify the 0800 number to which thecall was made. Whilst free call numbers are preferred in many instances,they are not essential. It is possible to use direct dial in numbersknown as DDI numbers in an ISDN system which direct dial numbers wouldcarry a charge if a call were answered. Of course, where the call isunanswered there is no charge to the owner, generally the client, of thetelephone from which the call was made. However, there is a benefit inusing free call numbers where exceptionally a call is answered forexample in order to deliver messages to a carer thereby avoiding anycharge to the client. Also, it will be appreciated that whilst ISDN ispreferred in order to enable call transference, an analogue system ispossible albeit more complex and presently more expensive in that agreater number of land lines are required compared to a comparable ISDNnetwork.

The present embodiment proposes that by utilising this DNIS featuretogether with the CLI information the caller can be identifiedunambiguously without the need to answer a call. Thus each caller isgiven his or her own individual free call number for a particular area.This can be done because it is a relatively simple and inexpensivematter for an organisation to acquire a sequential batch of 0800 (orother DDI) numbers so that each number can be allocated to a specificuser.

This arrangement is shown in greater detail in FIG. 6. Similar integersin this figure have been given the same reference numerals. However thediagrammatic telephones 20, 21 and 22 each represent a different userwith a different free call number which in the present embodiment is a0800 number. Three are shown, but the number associated with telephone22 is indicated as 0800 . . . n to clearly indicate that this number isnot limiting. Naturally each carer will travel within his or herallocated region to a number of clients. As shown all the telephonesconnect to the exchange 9 in such a manner that the exchange transfersthe calls to a single number at the premises of the company carrying outthe monitoring.

This is done by the function indicated at box 22 and is transferred tothe premises via an ISDN-30 connection 23. At the premises anappropriate telephony card 24 in the computer 4 obtains the original0800 numbers called using DNIS.

If the organisation acquiring and using the 0800 numbers is a large oneit is still not necessary to have an individual number for every user.This is because the DNIS information is coupled with CLI which gives thelocation of the originally dialled call. Thus the coupling of the twopieces of information will identify the caller provided that users withthe same 0800 number are distributed so that no number is ever used morethan once in a particular telephone region, that is in the UK in aparticular STD code region.

It must also be appreciated that the system just described can operatewithout the use of 0800 . . . numbers or any other kind of “free call”number. Any number can be used provided that the caller has a uniquenumber. The 0800 number merely ensures that a client and or carer doesnot have to pay for the call.

The hardware and functional organisation of the monitoring system ofFIG. 5 is the same as that of the first embodiment and is shown is FIG.3 and will not be described again. Turning now to the flowchart of FIG.7, the application software 14 receives notification of an incoming callfrom suite 13 at step S10. For the purposes of this flowchart it isassumed that DNIS is available. At step S11 the application softwarechecks if CLI is available. If not the call is answered at step S12 andthe carer's PIN is requested at step S13. In either case datarepresenting the carer's identity is entered to step S14. In this stepthe client's details as identified either by CLI or the input PIN arecompared with client's details on the database 5. At step S15 a decisionis made as to whether or not a match has been found in the database 5.If the incoming number is not matched with a client location the detailsof the incoming call are stored at step S16 in the database 5 as thereis a possibility that the monitoring system will not have been informedof a new client number.

If the number of the incoming call is matched in step S14 then in stepS17 the DNIS is used to lookup the carer details in the database 5. Ifat step S17 a match cannot be found this information is stored in thedatabase 5 in step S16. Otherwise after step S18 an attempt is made tomatch at step S19 the time of the call with a schedule of times storedin database 5. Additionally the final details of the call are stored inthe database. The final details will include the client location and thecarer's identity if these were available.

At step S20 the application software 14 takes the phone off-hook and atstep S21 dials the stored telephone number, waits a predetermined numberof seconds when the dialled number rings and at step S22 hangs upwithout a call having ever been completed.

In many cases the monitoring system will be acting for a plurality ofcustomers each of whom will have a number of people making regularvisits and who will require to have regular reports on the dates, timesand extent of the visits.

Thus at step S23 the application software separates matched andunmatched incoming numbers, collates at step S24 the matched number inaccordance with the client to which they belong, generates data showingwhether or not a matched call corresponds to a scheduled visit andgenerates one or more reports. These can be displayed, printed by theprinter 6 for onward transmittal or sent at step S25 to the clients viathe internet connection 7 or other suitable electronic media, eg leasedline or dial-up modem.

It will be appreciated that steps S20, S23-S25 are optional and that theacquired data can be processed in other ways provided that informationcorresponding to CLI and DNIS is available or equivalent.

Advantageous additional features of the second embodiment will now bediscussed. Thus it is possible to identify whether a call represents anarrival or a departure. Using digital or analogue telephone connections,it can be identified when a caller hangs up—without the call beinganswered. By automatically recording a. when the call is first presentedto the system, (that is the ring tones commence) and b. when the callerhangs up (the ring tones cease) it can be measured how long the callingparty allowed their phone to ring the system number. Another advantageis that by knowing exactly when the calling party hangs up the systemcan immediately send the return call without any delay. This is animprovement on the existing system whereby the system sends a returncall after a predetermined time period i.e. when it thinks the callerhas hung-up.

By instructing users of the system to vary the length of time they allowthe phone to ring for when calling the system, the different types ofvisit events can thus be readily identified. One useful application ofthis process is to record whether the caller is arriving at a client'shome at the start of a visit or leaving a client's house at the end of avisit. So, for example, the caller could allow the phone to ring 3 timeson arrival and 5 times on departure. In order to confirm to the callerthat the system has correctly identified the visit type, the applicationsoftware can be programmed to vary the number of times it makes theclient's telephone ring during the ring back process. This could be thesame number of times the caller rang or a different number e.g. 2 forarrival and 3 for departure. Again, in all cases, there is norequirement for either the initial call or confirmation call to beanswered in order for visit details to be recorded. Calls can beconnected, however, if desired as in the case described below.

One of the fundamental features of the system described in thisspecification is the ability to automatically make a return call to thecalling party within 10 seconds of the original call. An improvement tothis process is when the return call can be automatically programmed toring until answered (or for a specified time period) under certainconditions. One of the principal features of the system in its currentapplication as a home care monitoring device is in its ability tofacilitate communication between managers/supervisors and field workers.Traditionally, if a manager/supervisor wishes to make contact with acertain member of staff they would probably look at a schedule of workto identify where the field worker in question was expected to be.Because of the nature of the job, it is extremely unusual for home carestaff to adhere rigidly to a fixed time schedule of work and hence themanager/supervisor may have to make many calls to different clientsbefore tracking down the field worker and communicating with them. Manycare workers do now carry mobile phones but it is costly to make callsfrom fixed line to mobile phone services.

As already described existing systems rely on calls being answered and aPIN number recorded to identify the intended recipient. The solutionproposed in the present case provides carer identification through DNISand hence the system will recognise if a carer has a message waiting forthem without the call being answered. In this solution, there are twoalternatives according to customer preference for how the message can beretrieved. Firstly, the system can automatically play the message to therecipient when the caller rings the system and within the 2 to 5 ringsthat the caller would normally make before hanging up using theunanswered system. The message would be played and an option given atthe end of the message for the recipient to record a return message tothe originator if they so desire. Secondly, the system can be programmedto—initially—treat the call as a normal call and wait for the caller tohang up after 2 to 5 rings. However, when the system calls back it canmake the clients phone continue to ring until the call is answered (orcertainly for a much longer time period than the usual 2 to 5 rings).When the call is answered, the message is delivered as before and againwith the option for the recipient to leave a return message if sodesired.

The advantage of the second option for message delivery is in the factthat the caller will be more likely to respond to the phone ringing outcontinually as it is an obvious means of communication. The risk withthe first option is that the caller will be so used to their initialcall not being answered (as it is anticipated that only a smallpercentage of callers would have a message waiting for them) that theymay not even hold the phone to their ear when calling the system.Another advantage to the second option is that because the message isdelivered during the ring back process it is always the call centre(monitoring service provider) which will incur the direct call chargesfor the delivery of the message. This is an important issue as many homecare users, clients, are older and often confused—they have genuineconcerns that they may be paying for the cost of calls on theirtelephone bill. In reality this cannot happen as 0800 numbers areutilised for this service—whether calls are answered or unanswered, thissystem does give added reassurance to clients.

Turning now to FIG. 8 of the accompanying drawings this figure is a flowdiagram of the operations which can be carried out by the enhancedsystem just described.

As in the previously described flow diagrams the first two steps S50 andS51 represent receipt of an incoming call by the software suite anddetermining if CLI is available or not.

However if CLI is not available the data flow does not end. Instead thesystem offers alternative options which are shown in the Figure asparallel branches at “A”. In the first option the call is answered atstep S52 within the number of rings that the caller would normally bewaiting for such as 3 rings. The carer is asked, preferably by arecorded message at step 53 to redial prefixing the number in the UKsystem with the number 1470. This temporarily switches off the CLIbarring for this call only. The caller then responds after hanging up atstep 54 by redialling at step S50 with the 1470 message.

In the other option the call is again answered by the system, this timeat step S55. Once again the call is answered before the caller receivesthe expected number of rings. At step S56 the initial caller is asked topress the star key in order to allow the system to determine whether ornot the phone is a push button one. Step S57 decides whether or not thestar key has been pressed. If the answer is YES the client's PIN isrequested at step S58 and at step S59 it is checked whether or not therequested PIN is on the database. If the answer to this step is NO theclient's name is requested at step S60 and the answer from either stepS59 or step S60 entered in the database at step S61 in order to attemptto match the client's details with the schedules and locations stored onthe database.

If the outcome of decision step S51 is “YES” step S62 looks up the carerdetails on the database and at step S63 a decision is made as to whetheror not the details are found.

If the answer is “NO” an attempt is made to match the incoming numberwith a client at step S64. If the answer to step S64 is “NO” step S65goes to already described step S55 so as to repeat steps S56, S57 andS60. If the answer to step S64 is “YES” the flow proceeds to alreadydescribed step S61.

If the answer at step S63 is “YES” the call is answered at step S66 andat step S67 an options menu is played to the caller. If the callerresponds appropriately at step S68 and an option entered the procedureloops with step S69 until the selections of options is terminated with a“NO” response from step S68 where the system hangs up at step S70.

Returning now to the main path of the flow diagram a decision is made atstep S71 as to whether or not the DNIS has been matched to the carer'sdetails on the database. If the answer to this step is “YES” then thenext step, S72, corresponds to step S16 of FIG. 4. If the details arenot found and the answer to step S71 is “NO”, then the call is answeredagain within the normal number of rings which would be expected by thecaller. This occurs at step S73 and the system goes into a loop similarto steps S57, S58, S59 and S60 save that in this loop it is the carer'sdetails which are requested at steps S74-S78. The requested informationis then entered at step S71 as previously described.

Step S78 corresponds to step S15 of FIG. 4 and steps S80, 81 and 82 alsocorrespond to steps S20-22 of FIG. 4. However the enhanced system beingdescribed also checks if there are any messages waiting for the carer.This is done at step S83. If the answer is “NO” steps S73, 74 and 85correspond to steps S17-19 of FIG. 4. If the answer is “YES” two optionsare available. Either at step S87 the phone is taken off hook and thestored number is dialled as a network call at step S88. In this case thenumber of ringing tones is greater than the expected number so the careris prompted to pick up the phone so that the waiting messages can bereplayed to him/her at step S89 after which the call is terminated atstep S90. Alternatively the call is answered within the short number ofrings which is the system's normal response at step S91 whereupon afterthe messages have been relayed at step S89 the call is terminated asbefore.

Turning now to FIG. 9, this shows a short sequence which can be added tothe flow diagrams of FIGS. 4, 7 and 8 and illustrates the considerableversatility of the system. It is assumed that the sequence is added toflow from step S71 of FIG. 8 between step S71 and step S72. Thus atextra step S100 a decision is made as to whether or not this is thefirst call from a carer working for a particular client. If the decisionis “YES”, the call is answered at step S101, a welcome message played atstep S102 and the original step S72 follows. If the answer is “NO” stepS72 follows as usual.

It will be appreciated that a key component of the monitoring systemsjust described is the application software 14. This software suite canbe located into an electronic processor via any suitable medium such asfloppy disc shown at 8 in FIG. 1.

Further, the computer program can be obtained in electronic form forexample by downloading the code over a network such as the internet.

One present embodiment also incorporates an auto-check ability and thisis shown in the flow diagram of FIG. 10.

This facility utilises a separate telephone line and automatically callsthe system of FIG. 5 at defined intervals, such as say 10 minutes. Itthus mimics an actual caller. It also waits for a short period after thecheck-up call has been made, for example 1 minute, so as to determinewhether or not the call was received.

If no ringing tones are detected or the ring back was not received thesystem is judged to be failing and an alarm call is made to a designatednumber. This facility can be sited away from the main monitoring systemwith dedicated PC hardware and telephone line. The system hardware issimilar to that shown in FIG. 5. If more than one telephone line isbeing used by the main monitoring system the facility can be programedto dial the different numbers either randomly or in sequence.

The operation of the auto-check facility is described in the flowdiagram of FIG. 10. At step S200 the phone is taken off hook and thefree-call number dialled at step S201. A decision is made at Step S202whether or not ringing tones are detected. If the answer is “YES” thenext Step, S207 hangs up the phone and the facility waits for the returncall. Step S209 is a decision step which decides whether or not aring-back has been detected. If the answer is “YES” the flow chart loopsback to Step S200 after logging the successful result in the database atStep S205. If the answer to Step S202 is “NO” Step S205 hangs up thephone at Step S206. Step S207 is common to both branches of the flowdiagram as it deals with a fault on the monitoring system. In this stepthe phone is taken off-hook and at Step S208 a stored emergency numberis dialled or a message transmitted in the modem and an alert message issent. Finally Step S210 hangs up the phone at Step S209 again to repeatthe procedure.

Referring to FIG. 11, there is shown a flow diagram of event processingwhich is possible using a system according to the invention. After stepS79 (or at step S72) whereby call details are stored in the database,the system can be configured at step S110 to retrieve previous clientand or carer details from the database. If a recent earlier event is notfound at step S112, then the new event (ie. incoming call) is logged asan arrival and saved at step S114. However, if the previous event isfound, then at step S116 the system determines whether or not theprevious event was a departure event. If no then the system determinesat step S118 if the new event is within a predetermined number Y, ofminutes (such as 15) of an expected departure time. If no, the event isstored as an arrival at step S114. If yes, the event is stored as adeparture and saved as step S120.

If the previous event was a departure event as determined at step S116,then at step S122 the system determines whether the new event is withina predetermined time X, such as 15 minutes. If the answer is yes, thenthe new event is logged as a departure and the last event logged asunknown and this information is saved at step 124. If the answer is no,then the new event is logged as an arrival and saved at step S114. StepS122 provides for the possibility that a carer calls in from a client torecord a departure then stays with the client for some reason such asadditional care being required before calling again to record actualdeparture.

Referring to FIG. 12, there is shown a flow diagram of steps taken by acarer to log visits remote from the client who has been visited.Accordingly, in the circumstances for example that a client does nothave a telephone, a career dials into the system preferably from apredetermined telephone number associated with the carer such as a hometelephone number of mobile telephone number. Accordingly, at step S130in FIG. 12, the system is able to answer a call from a carer from apredetermined number having identified using CLI that the carer iscalling from an associated number such as home. It is then possiblebetween steps S130 and S132 to play any messages to a carer which mightbe stored within the system. In any event at step S132 the menu forremote access to the system is played and the carer is requested toinput a response to the played menu at step S132. For example, if digit1 is pressed indicating that the carer wishes to log an event previouslyunrecorded in the system, then at step S134 the carer is requested toinput the client ID which could for example be in the format of a threedigit numerical reference. The system determines for step S136 if the IDis valid or not. If no the caller is informed and requested to input theID again at step S134. If yes, the system requests the date of the eventfrom the carer at step S138. If the date is validly entered at step S140eg as a simple four digit reference ddmm, such as 2901 representing the29th of January, or simply by pressing the * key for today, the systemrequests the start time at step S142, or if the date is not valid theuser is informed at step S139 and the date is again requested. The userinputs the time and this is assessed at step S144. Again if not validthen the user is informed and the start time is requested. When thestart time is validly entered, the user is requested to enter the endtime at step 146. If the end time is validly entered then the user isrequested to enter a reason at step 150 as to why the event has beenlogged remotely. Menu options can be provided at step 150 such as; theclient does not have a phone, the client telephone and/or telephone lineare/is inoperable, or due to carer error such as the carer has forgottenthe free phone number to be dialled.

Referring to FIG. 13 there is shown an example of an active reportprovided by the system monitoring scheduled events. On the display 300,rows of information 302 representing individual events are provided.Each event comprises a series of information including one or more ofthe following. At column 304, the agency (or system customer) providingthe monitoring service is indicated. Beneficially, a service providercan select individual agencies at column 304 and or view all activeevents being monitored by a system. At column 306, visualrepresentations are provided regarding the immediate status of an eventfor example, a cross can be used to indicate that a carer has not loggedin in relation to a scheduled event. The image of face is here used atcolumn 306 readily to indicate that a carer is in attendance at ascheduled event. A tick is used here readily to indicate that an eventhas been completed, and a clipboard symbol is used to indicate that anevent is scheduled for some time in the future eg on a given day beingviewed Subsequently an alarm can be raised to indicate that an event hasnot taken place at all. At column 308 a symbol is used to indicate noncompliance with exact requirements of a scheduled event; for examplewhen a carer is late beyond a predetermined period of a start timedespite the fact that the carer subsequently turned up. An alarm clockis shown in column 308 in respect of two events where the care workerarrived more than an hour after the planned start time. At column 310the date is shown for the scheduled event. At column 312 the plannedtime of each of these scheduled events is shown and at column 314 thename of the client is indicated. Column 316 shows the actual start timea caller dialled in for an event in progress, or the start and end timefor a completed event as shown. At column 318 the punctuality of thecarer is shown and at column 320 the overall duration of an event isrecorded. The identified care worker is shown in column 322 which is ofcourse enabled through use of the DNIS facility described earlier. Wherethe carer is not the same as the scheduled carer, the scheduled carer isshown in parentheses in column 324. A further visual indicator is givenin column 326 in the form of a pie chart representative of a comparisonof actual or lapsed time versus scheduled time of a scheduled eventwhich has taken or is taking place. For example a pie chart might onlybe shown for completed events where the duration of attendance of a careworker within predetermined limits such as less than a quarter of theanticipated event time and or less than half of the anticipated time.

Beneficially, the system enables active reports to be provided toseparate customers of the service provider such as different carerorganisations. Accordingly, a display as shown in FIG. 13 can activelybe provided for a carer organisation or agency (customer of the monitorservice provider) as shown at column 304 including informationappropriate for the customer. Additionally, separate alarms can beraised for customers in the event of late arrival of a carer at ascheduled event and this system can be configured to generate such alarmmessages in the form of pre-recorded telephone calls and or SMS textmessages for example, or by means of the PC software.

The return call from the system such as identified at step 5 as shown inFIG. 2, and or as described herein, need not be directed back to therecognised incoming call phone number. It is possible to configure thesystem to return a call for a response or recognition call to a separatenumber, or multiple numbers, appropriate for a given carer such as ahome telephone number or mobile telephone number or indeed to sendappropriate indications such as an SMS text message to a carer's mobilephone or to a pager. Indeed, it is possible to configure the system togenerate periodic reports to individual carers such as a daily report oflogged events and times in the form of a SMS text message. Accordingly,the carer can then use the remote access facility described in relationto FIG. 12 in order to enter unrecorded events.

Beneficially therefore the system is able to generate payroll reportsbased on individual carer's actual activity which has been logged in thesystem. Criteria can be specified regarding the punctuality and extentof completion of scheduled events in order to generate a suitable payreport for an individual carer. For example, scheduled events can bedeemed fully payable provided that a predetermined percentage of theschedule duration of the event is completed. The predeterminedpercentage can for example be greater than 50% or some other value suchas 75% of the predetermined duration. Additionally, over-time can becalculated and a proposal made for pay to an individual carer based onrecorded additional time work based on predetermined criteria.

It will be appreciated that features of the individual systems describedin relation to the relevant figures can be adapted for use on any one ofthe system described herein. Beneficially, a system according to theinvention can be provided which enables sophisticated call handling inparticular in relation to attaching a type of event such as arrival ordeparture of a carer from a site to data stored in relation to anincoming call thereby to process a further incoming call from the samenumber depending on the type of previous event. Additionally, a callmonitoring system can be provided which enables call handling dependenton the origin of the incoming call such as in relation to an area codesuch as an STD region, or an actual number thereby for example to enablepreferential call handling in a queuing system dependent on the incomingcall number.

1. A monitoring system for monitoring incoming telephone calls,including telephone calls with different called numbers, routed througha call system, the system comprising an electronic processor and anassociated database, the system being adapted to detect the originatingnumber of the caller and the called number to which the incoming callwas made, to store the time and date of the incoming call the number ofwhich has been identified and data representing the number to which theincoming call was made, and to identify the location of the callercorresponding to the originating number by comparing the data stored toinformation in the associated database and to identify the identity ofthe caller by coupling data representing the number to which theincoming call was made with the identified location of the caller.
 2. Amonitoring system according to claim 1 adapted to automatically generatea call in response to any incoming call the originating and callednumbers of which have been identified without answering the incomingcall.
 3. A monitoring system for monitoring incoming telephone calls,including telephone calls with different called numbers, routed througha call transference system, the system comprising an electronicprocessor and an associated database, the system being adapted to detectthe originating number of the caller and the called number to which theincoming call was made before being transferred, to store the time anddate of an incoming call the number of which has been identified anddata representing the number to which the incoming call was made, and toidentify the location of the caller corresponding to the originatingnumber and the identity of the caller corresponding to the callednumber.
 4. A system according to claim 3, wherein the processor isadapted to compare the number of an incoming call with stored numbers soas to match the parameters of an incoming call with stored data todetermine the origin of the call from which the call was made, and tocompare the time and date of a matched number with a visit schedulestored on said database representing the expected times and dates atwhich callers should visit predetermined sites and/or wherein saidprocessor is adapted to generate data indicating matched numbers andindicating compliance or not of the times and dates of matched numberswith the visit schedule.
 5. A system according to claim 3, adapted tocompare the called number with a visit schedule of users stored in saiddata base so as to identify the caller.
 6. A monitoring system accordingto claim 3 comprising a remote checking system for checkingpredetermined functionality of the monitoring system, the remotechecking system being adapted to generate an alert message if the actualfunctionality of the monitoring system does not meet the predeterminedfunctionality, wherein the remote checking system is adapted to call theelectronic processor and to determine whether ring tones are detected.7. A system according to claim 6, wherein the remote checking system isadapted to receive an incoming call generated by the monitoring systemin response to a checking call from the remote checking system whereinthe remote checking system is adapted to log outgoing checking calls andincoming response calls in a database.
 8. A system according to claim 3,adapted to determine a type of event for an incoming call, such as afirst call from the originating number of the call wherein theelectronic processor determines the event based on the duration of theincoming call and/or number of rings before the caller hangs up.
 9. Asystem according to claim 8, wherein the electronic processor comparesthe time of the incoming call and the previous call for a recognizedcaller or client against predetermined criteria in order to determinethe nature the event.
 10. A system according to claim 8, wherein if thelast event was a departure event and the incoming call is within apredetermined time of the last event, the incoming call is neverthelessrecorded as a departure event.
 11. A system according to any of claim 8,wherein if the last event was not a departure event and the incomingcall is within a predetermined time of a schedule departure time thenthe electronic processor determines the incoming call to be a departureevent.
 12. A system according to claim 3 adapted to store datarepresentative of individual events for an identified caller and togenerate reports based on the stored information related to theidentified caller which is transmitted electronically to the caller. 13.A monitoring system according to claim 3 adapted to determine the typeof event of a previous call for an incoming call the originating numberof the caller of which call has been identified.
 14. A system accordingto claim 3 configured to enable entry of event information manually into the system and/or remotely using a telephone handset; and configuredto provide a caller with predetermined options to enter even informationin response to predetermined prompts.
 15. A system according to claim14, comprising a schedule of identification codes for individual clientsthereby enabling a caller to identify a client by entry of datarepresentative of an appropriate identification code.
 16. A monitoringsystem for monitoring incoming telephone calls according to claim 3,wherein the system is adapted to store data in the databaserepresentative of a type of event such as an arrival or departure eventat the site of the originating number, adapted to determine the type ofevent of a previous call for a new incoming call the originating numberof which has been detected thereby to process the new incoming callaccording to predetermined procedures dependent on the type of event ofthe previous call.
 17. A system according to claim 3, comprising a callholding system which orders incoming calls in a queue based onpredetermined criteria and wherein the queuing criteria depends on thearea code of the incoming call and or the actual number of the incomingcall.
 18. A system according to claim 3 adapted to generate automaticreports to a customer in accordance with predetermined criteria andadapted to generate an alarm message to a customer in the event thatpredetermined criteria in relation to a scheduled event, such as lack ofrecordal of an arrival event beyond a predetermined time after ascheduled start time of a scheduled visit.
 19. A monitoring system formonitoring incoming telephone calls so as to generate data regarding thelocation and occurrence of the incoming calls according to claim 3; theelectronic processor being connectable to a telephone line and adaptedto respond to an incoming call to determine if the call has or has notCaller Line Identification (CLI) and if the original number dialled wasa direct dial number such as a free call number to identify the directdial number dialled so as to identify the identity and location of theincoming call; and to generate a call in response to an incoming callwithout actually answering the call to hang up the return call after apredetermined number.
 20. A system according to claim 3 comprising adisplay being configured to generate graphical representations of eventsrecorded against scheduled visits, adapted to display one or more of thefollowing: customer identification, status in relation to a schedulevisit, representations of an alarm generated upon failure to meetpredetermined criteria, schedule visit information such as planned timeand client identity, timed arrival event, timed departure event,duration of a visit, punctuality of the start event for a visit againstthe scheduled start time of the scheduled visit, duration of a completedvisit, the caller identity, the expected caller identity for a scheduledvisit, and or a graphical representation of the completeness of a visitsuch as actual duration of a visit versus planned duration of ascheduled visit.
 21. A system according to claim 3, wherein if theidentity of the caller cannot be identified, the system is adapted toanswer the call and request additional information.
 22. A monitoringsystem according to claim 3 wherein the return call is automaticallygenerated after the incoming call has been terminated and the system isadapted to count between the number of rings before the incoming callwas terminated so as to identify the incoming call as signifying arrivalor departure, and/or wherein the automatically generated return call isof a limited number of rings, and is generated after the incoming callhas been hung-up before being answered, and the system additionallyincludes the feature of continually ringing the return call if there isa message waiting for the incoming caller.
 23. A system according toclaim 3, adapted to generate automatic reports: to a customer inrelation to individual callers; related to appropriate pay for anidentified caller; and/or to provide information in relation to durationof visits for an identified caller.